Almond sizing and separating machine



April 7, 1931.

H. r. JOHNSON ALMOND SIZING AND SEPARATING MACHINE Filed March '7, 19284 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR H. T C/(IIIIZS 012 w .mm

ATTORNEY April 7,' 1931. H. T. JOHNSON 1,799,751

ALMOND, SIZING AND SEPARATING MACHINE Filed March 7, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet2 V INVENTOR 3 H. T Johns 011 ATTO R N EY April 7, 1931. H. T. JOHNSONALMOND SIZING AND SEPARATING MACHINE Filed Marrjh 7, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet5 H.311 0011118011 BY Q 2.5m

ATTQRN EY April 7, 1931. H. T. JOHNSON 1,799,751

ALMOND SIZING AND SEPARATING MACHINE Filed March 7, 1928 4 Shets-Sheet 4INyEN'rbR H 37*. Johnson Patented A r. 1, 1931' UNITED STATES? PATENTOFFICE 1 ALMOND SIZING AND snrana'rmemcm application filed March 7,1928.- Sei'ial No. 259,812.

This invention relates to almond treating apparatus, my principalobject-being to provide'a machine for hulling the nuts, sizingthevarious nuts as hul1ed,'and subsequently separating the hulled nutsfrom the hulls. In connection with the carrying out of the aboveoperations I have, I' believe, provided a novel form of screen a novelmechanism for shaking the screens, and a novel com 1 bination of sizingand separating screens arranged in a very compact form and with meansoperable at will for selectively controlling the passage of the nutsfrom one screen to another of the different sets.

These objects I accomplish by means of I such structure and relativearrangement of parts as will fully appear by'a perusal of the followingspecificat on and claims.

In the drawings similar characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in the severalviews Fig. 1 is-a side apparatusr i Fig. 2 is afragmentary cross section taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of. the hulling mechanism.

- Fig. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional.

elevation of the feed-in and final disch irge 3'0 mechanism of theapparatus.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal section of the sizing and separatinscreen units, showing the arrangement of t e connecting passagestherebetween.

-" Fig. 6 isv a fragmentary perspective of a special form of screen.'Fig. 7 1s a side elevation of a screen shaking mechanism.

Referring now more" particularly to the ,40 characters of reference onthe drawings, the

a paratus comprises a feed-in hopper. 1 dis 'c arging into a chute 2which communicates with an elevator 3'; the vertical intake pas-' vsage4 of .a suction fan 5 being. interposed between the hopper and elevatorand located so that the nuts moving along the chute will pass across thebottom of the passage 4,

which is screenedon the bottom as shown in Fig.4. The elevator at itsupper .end dis- "0 chargesinto a hullerwhich comprises a cyhnslats 9 anddrop onto the topmost one of a elevation of the complete stra 19 whichengages a cross shaft 20 exlongitu .disposed so that their uppersurfaces are subnumber of circumferentially spaced slats 9. These barsatone end are flexibly supported from the frame work 10 of the machine,while at the other end said bars rest on a roller 11 which is mounted onan eccentric shaft 12. The rotation of this rolleris controlled by ahand operated lever 13 and it will therefore be seen that upon turningthe roller one way or the other the adjacent ends of. the bars will beraised or lowered and consequently the spacing of the slats 9 from theouter ends of the beaters 7 will be correspondingly altered to suitdifferent sizes and varieties of nuts being hulled. J

The nuts when hulled pass between the series of horizontal andvertically spaced screen trays 14, of which there are preferably five.The trays are connected as a rigid unit by side plates 15 which'arepivotally supported on brackets 16 secured to transverse shaftsf 17journaled on the frame. 10, the shafts 17 being rearwardly of thepivotal I connection of the plates with the brackets.

Additional yieldable supporting means for the screen units is provldedin the form of a transversely extending inverted semi-elliptical spring18 which is mounted on the frame 10 above the screens and connectedthereto by a centrally disposed depending ten ing between the upper endsof the adj acent plates 15 (seeFig. 2.).

The screen trays from the uppermost one down are provided with screensof gradually decreasin square mesh as indicated at A, B, C,-D, an E.Toward their discharge ends (which are those farthest from the huller)the screens of the three upper trays are of special form as indicated at21. This special screen comprises longitudinally extending '95 andtransversely spaced hollow and substan tially semicircular bars 22,which are intersected b similar transversely extending and ally spacedbars 23. The bars are stantially on the same level and with their curvedsurfaces uppermost; the space between the different sets of bars beingsuch as to leave square openings equal in size to the square opening inthe wire mesh adjacent. By reason of this arrangement of the bars, whichhave no flat surfaces or sharp edges, long flat nuts which may havebridged across the openings in the adjacent square wire mesh will havetheir major axes tilted vertically and their minor axes directeddiagonally into the square openings and a closer sizing will result.Adjacent its rear end the lower screen E discharges into a transverselyextending chute 24 which projects to one side of the machine so that thematerial in said chute may be caught in a box or sack.

.Disposed below and in parallel relation to l the upper screen unit is aseparating screen unit comprising a plurality of vertically spacedscreen trays 25 (of which there are one less than the upper screens)which trays are also connected together as a rigid unit by side plates26. These plates arepivotally supported by the brackets 16, the pivotalconnections of the plates and 26 with said brackets being in commonvertical alinement. .The trays are covered from end to end withtransverse rods or wires the spacing of which increases fromtop tobottom as indicated at F, G, H, and J-. The four upper screens of theupper sizing unit are connected at their discharge or rear ends with theadj acentends of the-lower screen unit, but in the reverse order, byvertical passages 27, 28, 29 and ot respectively, which are fixed as asingle unit on the frame 10/ In other words the passage 27 connects thescreens A and J the passage 26 crinnects the screens B and H, and so on,so that the produce rejected by the largest mesh screen of the upperunit will be discharged onto the widest bar opening of the lower unit,the produce rejected by the next smaller sizedsquare mesh will fall onthe screen with the next smaller sized bar openings and so on. Thespacing of the bars on screen J is slightly less than the leastthickness of any nut which would be rejected by screen A, and the barspacings of screens H, G, and F, are similarly proportioned to theproducts from B, C, and D, respectively, givin in this way the maximumopportunity for hu ls and foreign matter to drop through the bars. Todeflect the productsfrom one passage to another if desired, however, sothat the discharge from an upper screen may be made onto a differentscreen of the lower unit, the transversely extending division wallsbetween the passages are provided with vertical deflectin gates31, whichmay be swung longitudinal y one way or the other as indicated in Fig. 5.The products may therefore be diverted from one passage into anotherduring their travel between the screens as will be evident.

The lowerrscreen units discharge at their forward ends into a verticalchute 32 which at its lower end is branched so as to discharge on to anordinary picking table 33 as indicated at 34, or back into the feed-inchute 2 as shown at 35. The chute 32 above the branches is provided withvertical and transversely extending deflecting gates 36, One for eachscreen, which may be individually adjusted in a predetermined order soas to cause the products from the different screens topass on to thepicking table or back, to the chute 2 to be again run throughthe'machine. A hull draper 37 extending under the picking tabledischarges onto a main hull draper 38 extending across and lengthwise ofthe lower screen unit under the same, the discharge pipe 39 from the fan5 also discharging onto the draper 38.

The screen units are kept from being clo ged by means of transverse andlongitudlnally spaced bars 40 passing under the difierentscreens andsupported from longitudinal beams 41 which are connected to sideuprights 42. These uprights are connected to longitudinal rails 43 whichride on rollers 44 fixed on thevmain frame 10. This structureisreciprocated by means of a horizontal arm 4L5 connected at one end toone upright and at the other end to a link of an endless driven chain46.

The screens are reciprocated by a specially designed mechanism asfollows: Mounted on the frame 10 a short distance ahead of one of thebrackets 16 is a-transverse shaft 47 on which is clamped a radiallyslotted guide member 48. A pin 49 rides in this member, the pin beingmounted on a crank'arm 50 which is fixed on a transverse driven shaft 51disposed a short distance ahead of the shaft 47. The shaft 47 has aforwardly sloping crank arm 52 thereon, from the outer end of which alink 53 connects with the adjacent bracket 16. This particulararrangement gives the link and bracket an upward and rearward movementduring only a 120 rotati.ve movement of the shaft 51, and a downwardandforward movement during the remaining 240 of rotation of the shaft.The upper screen will therefore be. raised quickly toward the dischargeend and retracted at a relatively slow speed. This imparts a quickrearward movement to the nuts on the screen. while a relatively slowforward movement of the screen gives the nuts plenty of time to fallthrough the openings in the screens. Since the lower screen unit is,also mounted on the brackets 16, it has the same movement as the upperunit; and since the direction of travel of the produce on the lowerscreens is opposite from that on the upper, such shaking movement of thelower screens functions to the same end as on the upper ones.

In order to agitate the nuts in the feed-in hopper 1 to possibly preventthem from jamming, the bottom la of the hopper is slidable and isconnected by a link 54 to the forward bracket 16 as shown in Fig. 1.

Inoperation the nuts as fed into the hopper and passing to the elevatorare immediately subjected to the action of the fan which removes allrelatively light'material,

".such'asleaves and twigs, before the nuts reach the huller. After"being hulled the nuts the second-screen B, the material remaining on thelatter discharge through the passage 28 onto the corres ondin sizedscreen H. of the lower series. rom t is'screen the hulls drop throughand thence of course through the lower wider spaced bar screen below andonto the hull draper. The material dropping through the screen B istaken care of by the screens C'and G in the same manner as described andso on. The screen D is of such small mesh that nothing will droptherethrough onto the screen E but any nut meats I and very small hullparticles which Wlll. drop through the screen E. The meats retained onthe screen E will pass to the chute 24.

As before stated the gates 31prov1de for the selective control ofmovement of the inaterial from one screen to another, asmay bedetermined the operator to be necessary or desirable.

found toward the bottom ofthe lower set of screens whereas the hullednuts will be found toward the top. Suitable manipulation of gates 36will divert hulled nuts to the picking table and return unhulled nutsto'the huller for further treatment.

- From the foregoing description itwill readily seen that I haveproduced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of theinvention as set forth-herein. v

.While this specification sets forth in deta l the present and preferredconstruct on of the devlce, still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form irit of the invention,

a departure from they as-defined by the ap'pen ed claims.

Having thus described-my invention what I claim asnew and and desireto-secure byLettersP-atentis:

- 1. In combination-,1 a sizing screen umti comprising a plurality ofvert cally spaced screens,-of successively mesh from the top one down,'aseparat ngwcre'en -umt diverted at will to a screen 0 nhulled nutsbeing'of greater diameter than h ulled nuts, will naturally [be vcomprising a plurality of vertically spaced screens of successivelyincreasing bar spacing from the top one down, and passage meansbetween'the corresponding screens of the two units, all at one endthereof. I

2. A structure as in claim 1, with means provided with said passagemeans for enabling produce from any sizingl screen to be e separatingunit other than the one of corresponding mesh. v

3. In combination, a sizing screen unit comprising a plurality ofvertically spaced screens of successively decreasing mesh from the topone down, a separating screen unit compr1sing a lurality of verticallyspacedbar screens 0 successively increasing bar spacmg from the top onedown, said separating unlt being disposed directly under the sizingunit, and vertical passages into which the ends of'the sizing screensdischarge and which discharge onto the adjacent ends of mesh.

4. A structure as in claim 3, with vertical the separating screens; saidpassages being arranged to connect screens of corresponding deflectinggates in said passages arranged to permit produce dropping into anypassage .to be deflected into an adjacent passage.

5.- In combination, a sizing screen junit comprising a plurality ofvertically spaced screens'of successively decreasing mesh from the topone down, a separating screen unit comprising a plurality of verticallyspaced bar screens vo spacing from the top one down, and passage meansarranged to providecommunication between the discharge ands of thesizing screens and different one of the separatin screens selectively.

In testimon whereof I aflix my signature.

I l- IALBERT T. JOHNSON.

successively increasing bar'

